FPL goes to court to keep salaries secret

Florida Power & Light Co. appealed in state court today to keep the salaries of employees earning more than $165,000 a year confidential.

The Public Service Commission ordered the Juno Beach-based utility to provide the compensation information as part of its proposed $1.3 billion rate hike. FPL gave the regulatory panel the data but asked that it be kept secret. The PSC ruled that it should be available for anyone to see.

“The Commission has historically had no problem exercising its responsibilities without publicly releasing specific salary data for individual employees so the only reason for this information to be publicly disclosed now is to distract from the important issues in the case that matter to our customers,” FPL spokesman Mayco Villafana said in a statement released late this evening.

The appeal was filed on behalf of 15 FPL employees at the First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee. Barry Richard and former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Arthur England represent the workers.